ON CALL The 2026 FIFA World Cup continues and at the time of writing, The Register‘s home nation – England – remains in with a chance to bring home the trophy!

We therefore devote this week’s edition of On Call, our weekly reader-contributed tale of tech support, to the beautiful game.

We’re able to do so thanks to a reader we’ll Regomize as “George” who once pulled off a great save when, decades ago, he worked as one half of the two-person tech team at one of Europe’s most famous football clubs.

“The IT manager wouldn’t work weekends,” George told On Call, and that meant he had to attend most home games to provide tech support.

“Mostly I’d be paid overtime to sit around in the police control room for a few hours, eat free pies, and pretend I was vital to operations,” George wrote. “Occasionally, a minor issue would require my input, but typically it was a quiet day spent watching the match in comfort.”

The club George worked for enjoys an ancient and enormously fierce rivalry with another. When the two teams meet, it’s a major event, authorities insist on extra security, and police brace for trouble across an entire city.

That caution extends into the club’s stadium.

“The club would hand over overall responsibility for stadium safety to a suitable deputy chief constable for the duration of the game,” George explained. “That officer had the ultimate say on whether the match would go ahead in the case of any safety issues.”

On the day in question, power to the police control room suddenly went out – just as the ground started filling for the big match.

“This was a major issue. We had no radio to coordinate hundreds of stewards and police officers, no CCTV monitoring stations, and most critically, no exit gate control – an essential requirement for acceptable match day safety,” George told On Call.

Club officials therefore dispatched an electrician to sort things out, but the sparky soon returned with bad news: a recent upgrade had burned out, and a fix would take days.

On most match days, the outage would mean immediate cancellation of the match – and a big fine for the club for failing to stage the game. But with a fevered crowd flooding in from the streets near the stadium, calling off the match had the potential to see frothing fans turn ugly.

The officer in charge and the stadium operations director therefore entered had a terse discussion, during which they asked the electrician if a portable generator might address the problem – but that wasn’t possible.

At this point, George asked the officer in charge what minimum setup would make it safe to let the game proceed.

“The response was that if we could centrally open the exit gates at the end of the match, or in the event of an evacuation, and get the CCTV and radio working, the match could go ahead.”

George then revealed that he had just that week installed a new 4U uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in the football club’s server room and had been charging it ever since. (In case any tech-averse football fans stumble upon this story, a UPS is a substantial battery used to keep critical computers running when power drops out. They store plenty of energy, but nobody assumes they’ll last for hours.)

George felt the UPS unit might do the job.

“After some quick napkin math, I suggested it might have enough juice to power those critical systems for long enough to allow the match to proceed,” he wrote.

The police officer and operations director agreed to let George try to make it work.

“I rounded up a few lingering stewards, the electrician, and two uniformed coppers, and we set off to the server room. We retrieved the UPS and humped the massive bloody thing halfway round the stadium, through the crowds, and up the tight stairwell into the control room.”

George then jury-rigged extension cables to the systems that needed power and turned them on.

“I felt like Tom Hanks trying to get that guidance computer online in Apollo 13,” he told On Call.

“Amazingly, everything actually came up and stayed up, the UPS’s extremely vague five LED capacity lights held solid at full green and the order was given for the match to proceed,” George said.

He spent the entirety of the match staring at those LEDs, and as the match progressed, he started praying it would not go too deep into stoppage time.

“The final whistle blew, we opened the gates, and the UPS lasted another 10 minutes before finally conking out,” he told The Register.

“For my MacGyveresque efforts, saving the high-stakes match, protecting the safety of tens of thousands of fans, and saving the club a fortune in fines, I was duly awarded a gift voucher to be spent at the club’s on-site superstore,” George told On Call. “The value of the voucher was not even enough to buy myself a single home-team shirt.”

Adding insult to injury, when he checked his next payslip, George realized the club had counted the value of the voucher as additional income, and he had therefore paid tax on it.

Have you saved a big event or MacGyvered a tech support fix? If so, click here to send your story to On Call. We’d love the chance to steer it into the back of the net on a future Friday. ®

The takeaway: Block, the parent company of mobile payment service Cash App, has reached a $45 million settlement with regulators and the attorneys general of 46 states and the District of Columbia to resolve allegations that it failed to adequately protect users from fraud. As part of the settlement, Block also agreed to provide live customer support to all users.

According to the indictment, Block exposed its users to fraud by misleading them about Cash App’s security. The company promised advanced fraud detection mechanisms but allegedly allowed scammers to operate freely. Investigators further alleged that the app did not provide a phone number for customer support, leading many users to search online, where they found fake numbers created by scammers.

Investigators claimed that Block, founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in 2009, was aware of the phone support scams but did little to prevent them. In fact, the company reportedly did not establish an official support hotline until 2021. Cash App also did not require a Social Security number or date of birth during signup, making it easier for potential scammers to target unsuspecting users.

In separate press statements, attorneys general from several states including New York, Texas, Wisconsin, California, Oregon, and Colorado heralded the settlement as a major victory for consumers. They also slammed the company for not being forthright to its users about its lax security protocols and inadequate customer support mechanisms.

According to New York Attorney General Letitia James, Block marketed Cash App as a secure service comparable to traditional banks, leading customers to believe that their funds were protected by cutting-edge security protocols. In reality, the company allegedly did not have a proper fraud detection system and offered no way for customers to report scams and fraud.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed that “lax verification standards, a years-long absence of phone support, and deceptive social media promotions” by Block left users exposed to scammers. He added that the company was also accused of delaying internal fraud investigations and locking legitimate users out of their accounts, leaving them with no way to recover stolen funds.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul noted that people who entrusted Cash App with their earnings deserved “a clear picture of how safe their money would be.” Instead, Block misled them about the strength of its consumer protections. Kaul added that the company’s lackadaisical approach was especially alarming, given that many of its customers are unbanked or underbanked Americans.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said that Block had separately agreed to pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the Washington Department of Justice, alleging that the company facilitated at least $22 million in fraudulent unemployment insurance payments over a five-month period during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed sets the stage for McLaren’s next release, the 788HS, which is promoted as the final iteration of a mid-engine V8 supercar line that began with the 720S in 2017 and has since included the 765LT and 750S. The 4.0-liter twin turbo V8 delivers 777 horsepower, a 37-horsepower improvement from the 750S. Not that it counts, but the torque remains at 590 pound-feet, and the engine continues to spin at 8500 rpm.

The acceleration is quick enough to hit 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, 124 mph in 7 seconds, and 205 mph in no time at all. The coupe’s dry weight is a svelte 2789 pounds, thanks to McLaren engineers’ efforts to reduce any unnecessary weight. They retuned the linked hydraulic suspension and sharpened the front end, lowering it by 0.2 inches compared to the 750S, with the intention of increasing body control and steering response.

Sale

LEGO Speed Champions McLaren W1 Race Car Toy for Boys & Girls, Ages 9+ – Building Set for Pretend Play…

• BUILD A RACING LEGEND – Experience the thrill of the track with LEGO Speed Champions McLaren W1 – The Real Supercar (77257) building toy for kids…
• 1 DRIVER MINIFIGURE – This race car toy building set includes a driver minifigure wearing a McLaren outfit, with a wig, wrench, and helmet…
• AUTHENTIC MCLAREN DETAILS – Car lovers will appreciate features and functions inspired by the real supercar, including an adjustable rear wing, a…

There’s more, including carbon-ceramic brakes, which are only seen on the Senna, so that speaks volumes about what they’re up to. Six-pot forged aluminium calipers hold the front discs tightly in place. We also obtained our first center-lock wheels on this car, which were lifted directly off the Senna. This vehicle has advanced aerodynamics, producing 10% more downforce than the 765LT. We now have a new S-duct that channels air through the hood and across the cockpit, and the active rear wing has been updated. We also get a larger diffuser; more on that in a minute.

Its aerodynamic components are made of carbon fiber, because why not? Because you are receiving symposer tuning, the crew has also incorporated a quad-exit titanium exhaust, allowing you to enjoy the engine sound from start to finish. The improved engine-mount calibration allows for an almost direct connection from powerplant to driver.

The interior has been redone, and they just went a bit further, so no one is complaining. It has a carbon fiber center console, seats with a new perforation pattern, and a special number plate with distinguishing badging. Only 200 of these will be built, with half coupes and half spiders developed by McLaren’s Special Operations division. Owners can customize the colors, materials, liveries, and other interesting elements to make each one truly unique.

You’re looking at a starting price of £450,000 before you even consider all the choices. The 750S already costs that much, so adding all of the bells and whistles will make this car even more pricey. Until recently, the HS badge was rather uncommon, appearing on only two other McLarens in history. This is it, the third installment, and it concludes the current platform saga, but a new generation is just around the way.

Samsung has confirmed its next Galaxy Unpacked event for July 22, where it’s expected to unveil its next-gen foldables. Recent reports suggest the devices may be priced significantly higher in Europe compared to their predecessors. Now, a new leak claims the same could be true for the US market as well.

US buyers could see a $100 jump

According to South Korean outlet SEDaily, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, AKA the Wide Fold, is expected to launch in the US at $1,899 for the 256GB model. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, the direct successor to the Fold 7, could cost $2,099 for the same storage capacity, a $100 hike over the Fold 7’s $1,999 launch price.

This lines up with the European pricing leaked earlier this month, which put the base 256GB Ultra model at €2,199, a €100 increase over its predecessor. Although the SEDaily report doesn’t outline pricing for the other storage variants, the hike is expected to be steeper for those models.

The price hike is likely tied to the ongoing memory shortage, though Samsung is reportedly still “conducting a final review of its pricing plan,” meaning the final figures could shift by the July 22 launch.

New AI features and One UI 9.0 could help justify the higher price

To offset the price increase, Samsung is reportedly leaning heavily on software upgrades for the upcoming models. The Galaxy Z Fold 8, Fold 8 Ultra, and Flip 8 could be the first from the company to launch with One UI 9.0 and Gemini Intelligence, Google’s new AI system that can carry out tasks across multiple apps.

While the report doesn’t offer pricing details for the Flip 8, it echoes earlier reports suggesting the device could ship with a Qualcomm chip in select regions and Samsung’s own Exynos chip elsewhere. Samsung has not confirmed anything officially, so it’s best to take this information with a grain of salt until the company takes the stage on July 22.

Microsoft says Windows users should expect to see an increase in security updates as the company increasingly relies on artificial intelligence to discover vulnerabilities in its codebase.

In a blog post published today, Microsoft said advances in AI have significantly accelerated vulnerability discovery, allowing engineers to identify more security issues before they can be exploited in zero-day attacks.

“The pace of vulnerability discovery is changing with advances in AI making it possible to find more issues, faster, across more code, with new mechanisms that can accelerate both discovery and analysis,”  Microsoft said.

As part of this approach, the company is using Microsoft Security’s multi-model agentic scanning harness (MDASH), an AI-powered vulnerability discovery system previously detailed by Microsoft, which scans critical binaries and validates potential vulnerabilities using multiple AI models.

Microsoft says the system scans critical Windows binaries for vulnerabilities and then validates the findings using multiple AI models. Vulnerability candidates are then passed through a second Windows-specific validation pipeline designed to eliminate false positives before engineers investigate the issues.

The company says it is also using AI to help engineers understand failures more quickly, suggest possible bug fixes, and identify similar bugs elsewhere in the Windows source code. However, Microsoft says human engineers will still oversee and review all proposed code and validate fixes before they are released into production.

Microsoft says the increased use of AI for vulnerability discovery means customers are likely to see more security updates to address newly discovered vulnerabilities in each monthly Patch Tuesday release.

“As AI helps defenders discover more issues, customers will see a higher volume of security updates included in each security release,” says Microsoft.

Artificial intelligence is used not only to find and fix vulnerabilities but also by threat actors to power their attacks and exploit zero-day flaws before they are fixed.

Due to this, Microsoft also announced today that it is updating its Secure Development Lifecycle (SDL) practices to account for AI-enabled attack techniques and to use AI earlier in the software development process to identify security issues before features are released.

This announcement comes two days after Reuters reported that the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has begun using Anthropic’s Fable AI model to scan government software for vulnerabilities that cybercriminals or foreign intelligence services could exploit.

According to the report, the AI-assisted code audits have already uncovered numerous vulnerabilities, though officials did not disclose how many or provide details on their severity.

Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.

The Picus whitepaper shows how breach and attack simulation tests your SIEM and EDR rules so threats stop slipping by detection.

Advertisement

Get the whitepaper

A new data-extortion group called Helix is using identity-focused tactics such as voice phishing (vishing), device code phishing, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) abuse to steal data from SharePoint environments.

Initial contact is made through vishing. In some cases, the threat actor called employees while impersonating their manager, using either the manager’s name or caller ID spoofing to appear legitimate.

The purpose is to trick the target into device-code phishing schemes to gain access to their accounts.

Once inside, Helix operators quickly register a new multi-factor authenticator app for persistence, then browse and enumerate SharePoint before exfiltrating files.

According to researchers at cybersecurity firm ReliaQuest, the stolen data is typically used to extort victim organizations by threatening to publish it unless a ransom is paid, or it is sold to other cybercriminals.

The SharePoint exfiltration behavior is Helix’s strongest technical fingerprint.

“Automated enumeration and collection were identical across incidents and represent the most reliable fingerprint. Enumeration ran from 179.43.185[.]230 using the python-requests/2.28.1 user-agent,” the researchers note.

“The operator issued contentclass:STS_Site and wildcard (*) SharePoint searches to inventory all reachable content, then bulk-downloaded from the same IP and user-agent.”

Links to ShinyHunters and BlackFile

ReliaQuest believes that Helix emerged from the ShinyHunters and BlackFile data extortion groups based on the techniques and infrastructure used, although the researchers did not find a definitive connection.

Over the past month, Medtronic, Nissan, NAIC, Kodak, Infinite Campus, and Nottingham University confirmed data breaches previously claimed by ShinyHunters.

The now defunct BlackFile data extortion group targeted organizations using identity-based attacks and social engineering before ceasing operations in April.

ReliaQuest’s research found that one Helix attack used an exfiltration IP address in the same autonomous system (AS 51852) that hosted a confirmed BlackFile IP address, suggesting shared resources.

Additionally, Helix emerging shortly after BlackFile shut down may indicate a potential continuation of the extinct operation. ReliaQuest also mentions Pink and Redact as potential successors.

Concerning the link to ShinyHunters, Helix demonstrates a very similar social engineering playbook, including vishing, employee impersonation, targeting Microsoft 365, and stealing SharePoint data.

A second clue is the use of the NICENIC registrar, which has also been seen in past ShinyHunters campaigns.

As a highest-impact defensive measure against Helix attacks, the researchers recommend that device code authentication be disabled where possible.

Other recommendations include restricting SharePoint access to only managed devices and blocking exchanges with newly registered domains, which Helix typically uses in its attacks.

Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.

The Picus whitepaper shows how breach and attack simulation tests your SIEM and EDR rules so threats stop slipping by detection.

Get the whitepaper

A 21% price drop on the Pixel 9 Pro XL brings one of Google’s most powerful Pixels to its lowest recorded price.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is now $649, down from $823.99, and will save you 21% on a phone whose triple-lens camera system with pro controls and 20x Super Res Zoom Video already made the full asking price easy to justify.